Human Bondage and Abolition
New Histories of Past and Present Slaveries

Exposes the historical roots of modern-day slavery, using lessons from the past to empower activism against such exploitation everywhere.

Elizabeth Swanson (Edited by), James Brewer Stewart (Edited by)

9781316637364, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 23 August 2018

376 pages, 13 b/w illus.
22.9 x 15.2 x 2.1 cm, 0.54 kg

'Coming at the subject from different disciplines and with interests in both the past and present, the authors make a compelling case that we must understand that slavery will continue to evolve if we let down our guard or choose to rest comfortably in the illusion that it is no more.' Michael Guasco, The Journal of American History

Slavery's expansion across the globe often escapes notice because it operates as an underground criminal enterprise, rather than as a legal institution. In this volume, Elizabeth Swanson and James Brewer Stewart bring together scholars from across disciplines to address and expose the roots of modern-day slavery from a historical perspective as a means of supporting activist efforts to fight it in the present. They trace modern slavery to its many sources, examining how it is sustained and how today's abolitionists might benefit by understanding their predecessors' successes and failures. Using scholarship also intended as activism, the volume's authors analyze how the history of African American enslavement might illuminate or obscure the understanding of slavery today and show how the legacies of earlier forms of slavery have shaped human bondage and social relations in the twenty-first century.

List of figures
List of contributors
Preface: solidarity of the ages David Blight
Acknowledgments
Introduction: getting beyond chattel slavery James Brewer Stewart and Elizabeth Swanson
Part I. Understanding and Defining Slavery, Then and Now: 1. Contemporary slavery in historical perspective David Richardson
2. Slavery as civic death: making sense of modern slavery in historical context James Sidbury
3. From statute to amendment and back again: the evolution of American slavery and antislavery law Allison Mileo Gorsuch
Part II. Forms of Slavery, Past and Present: 4. Kidnappers and subcontractors: historical perspectives on human trafficking John Donoghue
5. Maritime bondage: comparing past and present Kerry Ward
6. 'All boys are bound to someone': reimagining freedom in the history of child slavery Anna Mae Duane
7. From white slavery to anti-prostitution, the long view: law, policy and sex trafficking Jessica R. Pliley
Part III. The Lessons and Solutions of History for Today: 8. All the ships that never sailed: lessons for the modern antislavery movement from the British naval campaigns against the Atlantic slave trade Dave Blair
9. Defending slavery, denying slavery: rhetorical strategies of the contemporary sex worker rights movement in historical context Elizabeth Swanson and James Brewer Stewart
10. The power of the past in the present: the capital of the confederacy as an antislavery city Monti Narayan Datta and James Brewer Stewart
An annotated bibliography for further research
Index.

Subject Areas: Slavery & abolition of slavery [HBTS], History of the Americas [HBJK]